Fred, Joel, Steve, Gene -
Yes, it is a surge guard - I haven not found an RV park available yet with a 50A connection in the past 1300 miles to try. I'm going to go to the only RV shop near Calgary that will see me in the morning to see if it is the transfer switch, I'm sure they have a 50A connection to test. See below.
I *think* the heating up cable is an unrelated problem. It was happening when I had a crumbling plug, which I replaced. I replaced the dogbone today with a better one and will report back tomorrow. I'm at a park now with 30A.
Generator works, provides 125V each leg until I give it load. The Aladdin cycles through "Shore Power Selected" a few times before it says "Gen Set Power Selected" - it seems a few more times than it used to. If I turn on the microwave the transfer switch drops out and the voltage jumps on the Aladdin to 135V on each leg.
On shore 30 A - Aladdin only shows AMPs on one leg. It drops out every few minutes. The AMPS drop to 0, everything on it dies for a second, and then comes back. If I give it load it drops out and says under voltage.
Inverter works fine, though it not charging very well with the intermittent shore power. Currently recharging with Solar and the 60A DC-DC on 8-9 hour drive days.
My best guess is the Transfer switch. Tracing back steps, it seems that the failure started when the generator was started while there was a load - I think the Tea Kettle was running on the inverter but inverter wasn't happy and we started the generator; that seems to be consistent with what I've been able to gather causes Transfer Switch issues. There is nothing behind the wall - cable comes straight from the spool to the transfer switch and from generator to transfer switch.
Will report back on what I gather - feel free to share any input you might have and feel free to call or text. I need all the help I can get. About to boondock for a few days from Friday and it is going to be like a hot tent without power working
Anand